This is a guide to the bosses and mini-bosses in the game. This CONTAINS SPOILERS so don't read on if you don't want to know :)

Major bosses in RED
Minibosses in BLUE

If anyone has any alternate strategies please post them up and i'll add them to the topic.

---TRAUMA---
Location: Start of apocalypse level
Strategy:
Trauma demons become a regular occurance towards the end of the game so its worth getting used to fighting them. They hit really hard so the key is to keep out the way with hit and run techniques.

If you dodge the main attacks the trauma demon should hesitate for a few seconds after each giving you the opportunity to hit it a few times and run.

Don't rush the fight on higher difficulties, simply take your time until you get the B prompt pop on screen when you can deal some pain.

Note: If there are crates, cars etc in the area throwing these at the Trauma demon is an easy way to hurt it without getting into danger range.
-------------------

---STRAGA---
Location: End of the Apocalypse level
Strategy:
Straga is giant and is in a pit of lava so you can't hit him directly as he is. Get ready to dodge any incoming attacks, Straga pounds the ground and sends shockwaves down a direct line so when he does this dodge to one side to avoid it. He also has an attack where he grabs the street and shakes it, don't worry when he tilts it from left to right, but when he lifts it up double jump to avoid damage when he slams it back down again.

The attack you are waiting for is one where he throws three cars at you. Dodge them then throw them back in his face to stun him. When he drops down pound his face.

Rinse and repeat until you defeat him.
------------------

---PHANTOM GENERAL---
Location: You fight this guy at Samael's prison
Strategy:
These guys become regular enemies later in the game and on apocalyptic can dish out a lot of damage.

As with the Trauma demon the key to these guys is counter attacking. Taunt the Phantom General into attacking and then dodge out of the way and dash back in and start a small combo.

Make sure you dash out of reach again as soon as he starts pulling off another move.
-----------------------

---THE JAILER---
Location: Twilight Cathedral basement
Strategy:
You meet this huge boss in the basement of the cathedral shortly after finding your first gear item, the Cross Blade.

The Jailer will be accompanied by some skeletal warriors. What's more he can respawn these by smashing his cage on the ground.

He does a lot of damage but is pretty slow so keep on the move and you shouldn't struggle.

His weakness is the three yellow spots on his shoulder. Use the crossblade to target all three and throw it to stun the jailer and make the small green zombie controlling him fall out. Charge in and pound this guy until the Jailer gets up then get out the way.

Repeat this three times to finish him.
---------------------

---TIAMAT---
Location: Twilight Cathedral
Strategy:
Tiamat is the first major boss in the game (ignoring the Straga who beats you in the first level).

To start off with Tiamat will be flying around the outside of the arena you are in breathing fireballs at you. Its worth letting her break some of the scenary as it makes the next phase a bit easier. To avoid the fireballs you can use the dash but i found it easier to jump slightly to one side.

Around the arena you will find inert bomb growths. Pick one up and throw it at Tiamat. It should stick to her. Run in close and use the cross blade to target a torch then the bomb growth. The bomb will blow up and send Tiamat crashing to the floor. Run in and combo her until she gets up then run away.

Once Tiamat takes off she will soar into the arena and try and take you out. Wait until she is scraping along the ground towards you then dodge to one side, she repeats this three times before returning to the original pattern.

Repeat the bomb growth process again to cause more damage. After she crashes and then gets up a second time get back as she will jump into the air and come crashing down destroying all the bomb growths.

The battle now takes place on the arena floor. Tiamat will walk around trying to slash you, dash in and hit her a few times before dashing away again.

If Tiamat jumps in the air back off as she will do a ground pound again. Also be ready over the B button as she attempts to pull off a quicktime attack. If you're quick enough you will stun her and get some free combo time, if you aren't she will knock you into the air and fireball you for high damage.

Once you have done enough damage B will flash on screen and you will finish her.
------------

---ULTHANE---
Location: Anvil's Forge
Strategy:
Ulthane can't be hurt by normal attacks so the key to this battle is building up your chaos meter as fast as you can.

As soon as it is ready transform into Chaos Form and wail on Ulthane until the battle ends.
-----------

---URIEL---
Location: Anvil's Forge
Strategy:
Uriel is very quick but fairly weak so the key to this battle is to keep moving. A lot of Uriel's attacks involve a lengthy recovery period so you can normally pull off a few decent combos while she is down.

This encounter with Uriel is pretty straightforward so you shouldn't struggle much. Use Chaos form if you have it for an easy win.
--------

---THE GRIEVER---
Location: The Hollows
Strategy:
The griever is the first and last enemy you fight in the Hollows.

When you first encounter this boss you have the angelic cannon on the ground in the middle of the room to help you out. Pick this up and open fire on the boss while avoiding its laser beam, the beam goes up and down as it moves around the room so move under it at the high points. The boss should flee fairly quickly so you will struggle to lose even on apocalyptic if you keep the damage up.

When you encounter this boss the second time you have no cannon so it is a very different fight.

The Griever starts off with two main attacks, a laser beam which tracks you around the room and a ground pound that it will do whenever you get close sending you flying and making hitting it impossible.

The key to this sequence is the rail road cart at the back of the room. As soon as the fight starts run around using the tremor gauntlet to break all the crystals between the cart and the Griever.

One problem you may have is if the laser hits the crystals they glow red hot and won't shatter when hit. The best way to let them cool is to repeatedly charge the boss making it knock you back so they cool off without being shot again. Once it cools run in quickly and shatter the crystal.

Once the crystals are gone run back to behind the cart and push it part way up the room towards the boss. Hold the Y button to charge up a punch and send the cart flying into the Griever's leg.

It will knock the cart back and summon a bunch of insect like enemies. If you're quick you can get a second hit with the cart in before the insects readh you, otherwise kill them all and then hit the boss again.

The second hit will send the Griever crashing to its knees, run in and use the Tremor gauntlet to shatter the crystal guarding its heart.

Now get ready to dodge the falling rocks as the boss pounds the walls. I find dodging around the main room works pretty well.

Repeat the above process and attack the new weak spot until the boss goes down.
------------

---ABYSSAL GLADIATOR---
Location: Ashlands arena
Strategy:
In phase one the gladiator is riding your horse ruin. To beat him lock on and dodge his attacks until he gets close enough to hit, pound him with your sword and when he gets stunned unleash a combo or two.

When ruin rears up back off as he will do an area attack. When you get the B prompt hit it to dismpunt your foe.

The on-foot phase is a bit harder but nothing that should cause you too much difficulty. The boss will block all your attacks and counter so you need to take advantage of this.

The main way is to trick him into doing an attack like the leaping sword slash by slashing at him then quickly dodging away so he misses. Once he has missed dash into him and unleash a small combo.

Dodge the blue fireballs he throws and keep countering his counters to kill him and get your horse back.
---------

ruin3d

01-02-2010 03:14 PM

---ASH WORM---
Location: Ashlands
Strategy:

Ride around the arena until the worm surfaces and begins chasing you. When it opens its mouth to attack open fire with your pistol and be ready to use Ruins charge ability.

Once the worm gets close enough it will charge which dismounts you, use the charge ability to avoid this attack.

Keep riding around shooting its mouth until it collapses and you can kill it.
-----------

---THE STYGIAN---
Location: Ashlands
Strategy:
Like the smaller worm this bosses weakness is its mouth, however, it has a metal mask on at the start which prevents you from shooting it.

Ride around in circles until you can get alongside the worm then dash up to beside its head and slash the mask with your sword. Once the mask falls off ride away.

The boss will summon baby worms to attack you. Ride away from these and shoot them to destroy them all.

Also be careful if the sand infront of you stirs as the Stygian flies out and knocks you off your horse unless you turn away. Note: hitting LB + RB again while in the air will summon ruin below you so you land on his back.

When you get the opportunity ride away from the Stygian shooting it in the mouth until it goes down.
--------------

---BROOD MOTHER---
Loction: Slitha's Loom
Strategy: Key to winning this battle is to have the Abyssal Chain equipped. Just as the Brood Mother is about to start sucking in the air to try and pull you in free aim and grab one of the corpses that is hanging off the ceiling and then throw it in to the Brood Mothers mouth.

Once the Mother starts chomping down on the meal have the Tremor Gauntlet equipped and double jump in the air next to the Brood Mothers back and punch it a few times.

If you hit it once the Blue Crystal should break off her back meaning that the next time you throw a corpse into her mouth walk to the back of her and start ripping into her with your sword.

Be carfeul though as after each time you throw a corpse into her mouth she jumps up in the air only to land on the ground causing it to tremor making you lose health. At these instances you see her crouch a bit to give her a boost in her jump.

nce she is in the air double jump around the room and make sure to also use ShadowFlight to stay in the air longer. Continue this method until she is wounded and you can press B to finish her off.

CREDIT TO GRATHIUS XR
-------------

---SLITHA---
Loction: Slitha's Loom
Strategy:
Slitha unlike the other Chosen does not have a specific weakness, instead you can hit her pretty much anywhere to cause damage. The problem in this fight is her speed, despite being huge getting close enough to this boss to hit her is a struggle.

The newly found abyssal chain is your friend here. When Slitha teleports to the far end of the room and taunts you run halfway towards her and grapple her as soon as you can, this will pull you into her too fast for her to teleport away. Pound away with an air combo then dash away. I found the tactic that worked best for me was RB dashing towards her and grappling straight afterwards.

When Slitha teleports above your head get out of the way quickly as she is about to ground pound you. The only exception is when your chaos meter is full, if you transform into chaos form her pound wont hurt you and you can lay down some serious damage on her while she recovers.

After enough damage she will teleport to the ceiling, this is your cue to grapple up to her and finish her off.
-------------

---TOWER GUARDIAN X 3---
Loction: Black Throne
Strategy:
These giant golemns are totally invulnerable except for a weak spot on their top. You fight three total in this dungeon but they are all very similar so i'm only doing one set of instructions.

Use the Void Walker to create two full power portals (hold RT down to charge it up). Now lure the boss over to near the portals and pop into the lower one gliding out of the high one onto the bosses head.

It might help to make the boss swing its arm down at you and dodge first as it stalls in place for about 15 seconds after doing this making it easier to land on.

After scoring a hit on the weak spot get out the way as it will spin around causing massive damage on the higher difficulty settings.

Repeat x 3 to kill it.
-------------

---STRAGA---
Loction: Black Throne
Strategy:
Time for a bit of payback on the boss who defeats you in the first level.

Again Straga is out of your reach and to make things worse there are no handy cars and he has a very big hammer to whack you with.

The Void Walker is the key to this battle. On his hammer you will see a portal as well as two on the floor, make a portal on the hammer and one on the floor by you and wait until he lifts his hammer overhis head and pop through to land on his back. Here you will find a weakness, hit it and then wail on his face.

After he recovers he will summon enemies, in preparation for the next bit make two portals on the ground at either end of the floor space.

If straga raises his hand dodge to the side to avoid the attack while you finish off the enemies he summoned. He will then attack by placing his hammer on the ground and dragging it from one end of the room to the other, the only way to avoid getting hit is to use the portals so you are mid portal when it passes you.

Repeat the hammer portal phase until you kill him.
-------------

---SHADOW WAR---
Loction: Eden
Strategy:
Use standard counter attack techniques against shadow war until he transforms into Chaos form. Do the same thing and beat three shades of snot out of him.
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---URIEL---
Loction: Dry Road
Strategy:
The second fight with Uriel is much tougher. She has a lot of HP and several new attacks in her arsenal.

As before attack when she has just missed a big attack and is temporaily stunned. Keep your distance when she is surrounded by electricity and watch out for her sword flashing as it is a warning that an attack is coming.
-------------

---THE DESTROYER---
Loction: N/a
Strategy:
Well this is it, the final encounter. This fight has two phases.

The first phase is you vs the boss in beast form. He is fast and deadly so don't try to fight him on foot. Also remember your sword is the only thing that can hurt him so forget trying any other weapons / items.

The key to this fight is to ride around until you are heading straight at the boss in a joust type situation. When you get close enough swing your sword to take out his front legs and send him crashing into a heap. If you leave it too late the boss will hit you.

Once he is down get in there and introduce his face to your blade. When he gets up and takes off mount up and move fast as he throws fireballs at you. Once he lands again repeat the joust technique until he goes down.

Phase II is vs his humanoid form. The Destroyer is a mean opponent and does a lot of damage if he hits you so don't take any chances.

As with all the other humanoid enemies dodge and counter attack as much as you can. After a while you will get into quicktime moments where you need to tap X to battle with the boss. Win these sequences to inflict high damage.

After the 2nd or 3rd QT sequence you should beat the Destroyer and can settle back for the ending. Enjoy!
-------------

GrathiusXR

01-02-2010 05:07 PM

---BROOD MOTHER---
Loction: Slitha's Loom
Strategy: Key to winning this battle is to have the Abyssal Chain equipped. Just as the Brood Mother is about to start sucking in the air to try and pull you in free aim and grab one of the corpses that is hanging off the ceiling and then throw it in to the Brood Mothers mouth.

Once the Mother starts chomping down on the meal have the Tremor Gauntlet equipped and double jump in the air next to the Brood Mothers back and punch it a few times.

If you hit it once the Blue Crystal should break off her back meaning that the next time you throw a corpse into her mouth walk to the back of her and start ripping into her with your sword.

Be carfeul though as after each time you throw a corpse into her mouth she jumps up in the air only to land on the ground causing it to tremor making you lose health. At these instances you see her crouch a bit to give her a boost in her jump.

nce she is in the air double jump around the room and make sure to also use ShadowFlight to stay in the air longer. Continue this method until she is wounded and you can press B to finish her off.

Hey dude, i just beat the styrgian and need to get to slitha. whats the quickest way?

Waterboy908

01-06-2010 01:22 AM

I'm playing on Apocalyptic and I'm on a broken bridge in the broken stair. A Trauma spawns and I have no idea how the hell I'm suppose to beat this guy. He gets about two hits on you and, boom, you're out. I do the whole 'hit a few times and run' thing, but nothing works. Any suggestions?

colburn

01-07-2010 07:12 AM

im having a tough time with tiamat i got 2 health stones whatever they called and one crystal to restore it i can get to the part of having her down on the floor to fight but i seem to always die with no crystal cause at this point i used it. any way to keep my health high and still damage her enough to kill her? tried bout 5 times before i took a break read the tips just wondering if anyone else around the level or area close to my stats beat her

btw this will come in handy great work:D

AzureHaseo

01-07-2010 07:21 AM

Good job on the description, helped me with tiamat and ashland fights. keep up the good work.

Sigz

01-07-2010 07:45 PM

This is was a great help on some of the bosses i just couldn't figure out,
why isn't this a "sticky" yet, pretty sukkie to look it up in the list every time!!

JohnnyDrama

01-07-2010 08:15 PM

Excellent guide, will definitely look to it for help

Trdis Trvler

01-08-2010 06:10 AM

Thanks this helped alot.

Zombiechild

01-08-2010 09:56 AM

General tips!(im playing on apoc diff btw)

If you can try and enter Every boss fight with full chaos get them down change form then pound away so far every boss fight ive done using this has been over very quickly guessing this wont work on some of the later/endgame bosses but for the stuff ive killed so farstart its worked a dream.

worked best on greaver first smash the crystal in its chest when you knock him her it down the first time go throught the methods to knock it down the 2nd time run up close change to chaos and beat away boss should die well before your form changes back

for tiamat i found keeping close when on the ground phase the best method when she rears up to do her fireball spam dodge/run and get behind her she will ALWAY stop the fireball move and fly up to ground bomb dodge away to avoid the shockwave and move back in and repeat to deal the pain the Ripsaw? sword attack is the king always attack her head! no other body part seems to take damage run in jump rip saw dodge out watch for fireballs etc repeat a few times and shes toast took me 5mins to killer doing this method phase 1 is the hardet part of this fight

Hope this helps some :)

BoostinBen

01-08-2010 10:06 AM

I'd just like to add a few tricks to a few of them.

For fighting the Griever the 2nd time when you finally get to defeat him. If you stand behind the train car his laser cannot hit you. Once you destroy all the blue crystallization, toss the train car into his knee and shater that blue protector over his heart, and then move out of the way while he kicks it back and makes a small shock-wave. Run around to avoid the falling debris. When he has his little gnat friends come out, stand behind the train and just use the 'B' button to grab them and kill them without using your sword. You'll not only get a ton of health, but as he beams around with his laser he cannot hit you behind the car. Then toss the car back into his knee and attack his heart. Rinse and repeat. It's very easy and you should not lose any health or very little.

For fighting Straga, you say you must time going into one portal and out of the other just right for when he drags his hammer across the ground. Well, you can also go through normally and then just double jump to bring out your wings and War will stay in the air much longer allowing the hammer to pass underneath. Generally he will hit towards the portal you're at, so when he's about to do that, go into the portal and when you come out the other side use War's wings to have him stay in the air a bit longer and the hammer will pass underneath.

HannShotFirst

01-08-2010 09:28 PM

Another good tip for the Griever fight: When it summons the swarm of bugs, you can use the Earthcaller to kill many of them quickly.

D4Ru73K

01-09-2010 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HannShotFirst
(Post 2682835)

Another good tip for the Griever fight: When it summons the swarm of bugs, you can use the Earthcaller to kill many of them quickly.

But the best way is spam by pressing B - you are immortal when you've got bug in hand, also you get little bit of health :D

the_ash

01-09-2010 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waterboy908
(Post 2673529)

I'm playing on Apocalyptic and I'm on a broken bridge in the broken stair. A Trauma spawns and I have no idea how the hell I'm suppose to beat this guy. He gets about two hits on you and, boom, you're out. I do the whole 'hit a few times and run' thing, but nothing works. Any suggestions?

Also need help with this please getting pretty fustrating

Boxy

01-09-2010 04:40 PM

I too was struggling for a while with this bit, on Apoc you can take just a few hits and you are done. The climbing back up to start the fight again didnt help matters either.

I finally beat the dude by backing off and only attacking when I knew I could get away with it. I also had the attack (I forget its name) that you trigger by :rbbut: + forward :rs: + :xbut:. It makes War dash forward and stab the enemy.

I then used Dash to get the hell out of the guys way. I had to do this about five/six times and then the :bbut: prompt finally came up to finish him. Hope this helps people who were getting as frustrated as I was on this encounter.

ConfusedGeek

01-09-2010 06:11 PM

is it easier to kill the bosses when you are in lb+rs mode?

MADasaHatter

01-09-2010 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConfusedGeek
(Post 2685560)

is it easier to kill the bosses when you are in lb+rs mode?

The thing with the bosses is that they don't stand still enough for you to pound away on them with the Chaos form. Bosses like the spider biatch are built for you to be unable to overpower them. They're all about using your new weapon and puzzling out they're patterns.

The minor guys you meet- overpower them F@#@s!

HeyHeyAces

01-09-2010 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waterboy908
(Post 2673529)

I'm playing on Apocalyptic and I'm on a broken bridge in the broken stair. A Trauma spawns and I have no idea how the hell I'm suppose to beat this guy. He gets about two hits on you and, boom, you're out. I do the whole 'hit a few times and run' thing, but nothing works. Any suggestions?

The horn (RT) will stun him for a second. Back him up against the wall. Use RT, hit him twice, use RT, hit him twice, etc. He'll get a few shots in at you, but if you're blowing the horn at the time you won't get hurt.

KloudStrife

01-10-2010 05:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeyHeyAces
(Post 2686128)

The horn (RT) will stun him for a second. Back him up against the wall. Use RT, hit him twice, use RT, hit him twice, etc. He'll get a few shots in at you, but if you're blowing the horn at the time you won't get hurt.

I spent over an hour trying to beat the Trauma on the bride, in the Broken Stair chapter, and this worked perfectly. The key, ESPECIALLY on Apocalyptic, is to just hit him once, MAYBE twice, before hitting RT to blow the horn at him again to stun him. I found that if I tried to get 2 hits in every time he would be more likely to hit me. If you wanna be really careful, just slash him once in between each horn. He CANNOT hit you even through constant, multiple horn blasts.

fragged3d

01-10-2010 05:36 AM

I would like to add to the Griever tips. If you charge him when he is about to make the rocks fall it will cancel it out to push you away, saving you from dodging anything. If your quick enough you can avoid damage by jumping and dashing.

JOHNisSiK

01-10-2010 12:46 PM

bump

this needs to be stickied along with the mini guide.

aussiestatic

01-10-2010 01:59 PM

Quote:

---TOWER GUARDIAN X 3---
Loction: Black Throne
Strategy:
These giant golemns are totally invulnerable except for a weak spot on their top. You fight three total in this dungeon but they are all very similar so i'm only doing one set of instructions.

Use the Void Walker to create two full power portals (hold RT down to charge it up). Now lure the boss over to near the portals and pop into the lower one gliding out of the high one onto the bosses head.

It might help to make the boss swing its arm down at you and dodge first as it stalls in place for about 15 seconds after doing this making it easier to land on.

After scoring a hit on the weak spot get out the way as it will spin around causing massive damage on the higher difficulty settings.

Repeat x 3 to kill it.

Im facing the second of these things and theres no where to create this void walk thing. I cant figure out how to get on his head.

*edit* 1 minute after posting I realised you have to get the rock man to break open the portal holes.

The Reaper X2

01-11-2010 12:56 AM

Silitha

When I fought against Silitha I was really frustrated and couldn't think of anything to do because my Chaoseater wasn't hurting her very much even when it was level 4. So I tried my level 3 Harvester. It worked a lot better.

I opened the fight with Chaos Form, when she was just sitting there. Then I grappled onto her and used Y, I got on average an x11 hit combo. I took her down in 2 or 3 of her teleportation chains, only lost 1/2 of a single health bar.

Wavemaster

01-11-2010 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waterboy908
(Post 2673529)

I'm playing on Apocalyptic and I'm on a broken bridge in the broken stair. A Trauma spawns and I have no idea how the hell I'm suppose to beat this guy. He gets about two hits on you and, boom, you're out. I do the whole 'hit a few times and run' thing, but nothing works. Any suggestions?

For me the trick was jumping. The Trauma dude seems te be doing a lot of sweeping attacks and i jumped over 90% of his attacks. Just hit the @#%$ out of him when in the air and make sure to jump up again when he attacks.

Hope this helps ;)

Also for the Griever fight:
The laser cant hit you when you're behind the cart. But for me the falling rocks didnt hit me either when i was in the far back of the room. As soon as the rocks stopped falling i pushed the cart. The fight was over in just a few minutes ;)

II OE II

01-11-2010 01:33 AM

chaos form is usually a fun trick to do when you want to maul the boss in question if you are still having a hard time, aside from those blasted robots in the black throne.

S2N pickle boyz

01-11-2010 02:23 AM

---TIAMAT---
Easy way to beat her without getting hit at all is just use your crossblade the whole fight till you need to hit :bbut:. Just repeat till dead. Takes alittle longer but saves you from loseing any life

slowpantz

01-11-2010 05:22 PM

this guide helped a lot, thanks op.

The Reaper X2

01-13-2010 01:59 AM

The Destroyer -Phase II-

I think you forgot to mention that Chaos Form is not able to be used during this phase, or at least I couldn't. Every time I tried to use it he would hit me with a special ability, knock out one of my health bars, and deplete my Chaos meter.